"He's your brother?"
"Eric? Really?"
"I can't believe you managed to beat up Peter. You're not skilful."
I hit Uriah over the head as this is a serious matter; I just told Marlene and Lynn about Marcus, Tobias and Eric and then explained to all of them the events of last night and typically Uriah likes to make a joke out of it.
"That's why I didn't like you flirting with him Marlene," I say to her answering her point first, "Four's my brother so I just found it rather uncomfortable."
"I just thought you had a secret crush on him," she replies, "As why else would you stop me making my move?"
"One ew no and two, your 'move' wasn't successful anyway so I was saving you from embarrassment. However, quite a lot of people do think I like him."
"She's referring to Eric," Uriah adds in.
"I'm not," I snap back.
"Sure," he replies.
"I can't believe Eric likes you," Marlene says.
"He might not like me," I point out, "He only is sometimes nice to me."
"He's nice to no one though," Uriah says almost scornfully, "It's clear he likes you."
"It doesn't matter either way as Roza is way out of his league," Lynn says causing us all to laugh, "But do you think Tris is okay? As she hasn't turned up to breakfast yet."
"My brother would have taken care of her and Peter and Drew couldn't do anything else as they were in the medical ward all night."
"What about the third person?" Marlene asks, "Because you said one of them ran away so they could have done something."
"It was probably Molly and she wouldn't do anything by herself." I reply, "Anyway Tris didn't come back to the rooms last night so nothing could have happened."
"So she was in Four's room all night?" Lynn enquires.
I am saved from the awkward question by the arrival of Tris. She arrives by herself, hugging to the wall and keeping her head down. She looks bruised and weak, but I think that's the idea that she's going for as then Will and Christina will be happy to be friends and be there to support her and it will show Peter that he had an effect so he wouldn't do it again. I have a feeling that it was Tobias's idea as I was telling him about how Will and Christina were treating Tris and he said the only solution is for her to act how they want her to.
As she sits down with Will and Christina, Uriah and I slide into the seats around her to see if she is okay.
"What happened?" Will asks.
Tris pauses and looks around nervously, "Peter, Drew... And.... And Al."
"Oh God," Christina says and I'm as shocked as her. Al! Al? I wouldn't have expected it from him, but I guess he is scared; scared that he's going to become factionless.
"Are you alright?" Uriah asks.
"Not really," Tris says slowly and I can tell by the way she is speaking that she's in deep pain.
"But you're just..." Uriah says, before rephrasing, "It isn't fair. Three against one?"
"And Peter's so fair," Christina retorts, "That's why he stabbed Edward in the eye. Because he wanted to get to first place fairly."
"Are you sure about Al," I ask Tris interrupting Christina, because I know why he would have done it, but it just doesn't seem like him.
"Yeah," she replies, "I'm sure."
At that moment Drew and Peter enters. I must say that I'm impressed with my work, Peter has a black eye, cut lip and a few bruises, but Drew is so much worse. His whole face is swollen and purple and has cuts all over. I see my brother smiling, satisfied with his work. He definitely took his anger out on Drew for hurting Tris.
"Did you do that?" Will hisses at Tris.
"No." she replies, "Someone, I don't know who, found me right before... before, I got tossed into the chasm."
Although I was there, I am still shocked about what they were going to do. They were going to kill her. It was no trick, they were going to carry it out to the end.
"We have to do something about this," Uriah says in a low tone.
"What? Beat them up?" Christina smirks, "Looks like that's been taken care of already."
"No. That's a pain they can get over, but if we edge them out of the rankings it will damage their future. Permanently." Uriah says darkly and I know that Tris isn't the only one his is trying to protect.
Before we can say anything else Tobias stands between the tables causing us to fall silent, "Transfers we're doing something different today. We're going now so follow me."
"Be careful," Uriah says to Tris as we stand up ready to leave.
"Don't worry," says Will, "We'll protect her."
Tris deserves better friends than Will and Christina. They are only protecting her when she is weak. They wouldn't protect her otherwise, like they left her after he beat them in the rankings.
We start to follow my brother, but then Uriah pulls me back, "Great work of Peter by the way."
"One of my best I must say," I reply flicking my hair jokily.
"Make sure Tris is okay."
"She is my friend too."
"And watch out for Peter."
"My brother will be there. He won't try anything. Anyway, I really need to go."
He quickly hugs me which seems a bit out of nature, but I don't think about it as I run after the others. I catch up as they are starting to climb up the path by the pit. I wonder where we are going.
Tris manages to get me on my own and asks, "Were you there yesterday? I am sure I saw you, or at least heard you."
I guessed that she was going to ask me this, but she wasn't going to ask in front of the others as she wasn't mentioning her night with Tobias.
"I was there," I say almost reluctantly because I know that she will make assumptions.
"Were you with Four?"
"We both helped you, but we weren't together before. We just both happened to be by the chasm around the same time."
"So just coincidental," she asks with a tone of suspicion
"Yeah," I reply, but I can tell she isn't convinced.
"Do you like him?"
"Four?" I ask and continue as she nods, "He's a great teacher, but means nothing else to me."
She ponders this over and then enquires, "Then why do I see you together a lot?"
"He's close with Zeke who is Uriah's brother. It's inevitable that we would see each other. There's nothing between us. He's all yours."
"All mine," she scoffs, "I don't know what you mean."
"You know what I mean."
"No clue," she replies before joining Christina and Will. I know she is lying, her feelings for my brother are obvious.
We get closer to the glass ceiling of the pit and I finally see the sun; I got so used to the dark pit of Dauntless. Darkness and shadows almost seems more comforting now. We walk up another flight of stairs and the glass ceiling now becomes the floor beneath our feet. Around us there are lots of Dauntless members who either seem to be fighting, talking or doing something reckless. This life is so close that I can almost touch it.
We walk across the glass and enter a dark room which seems a bit run down with graffittied walls and exposed pipes. It seems a strange place to take us in the middle of initiation.
"This," my brother says once we are all in, "is the fear landscape; a different type of simulation. It has been disabled so we can look around, but it will be different next time you come. Through your simulations, we have stored data about your worse fears. The fear landscape accesses that data and presents you with virtual obstacles. Some of these obstacles will be fears you previously faced, but some could be new fears. This simulation is different to the normal one you go through because you will be aware so you will have all your wits about you as you go through. Plus you will be facing all your fears at once, which varies depending on how many you have."
This a relief as it means that everyone will be like a Divergent so I won't have to pretend like I don't know what's going on. I can try my best and get one of my quick times like on earlier attempts. However, I don't think I should manipulate the simulation as that will be risky.
"Earlier in the initiation process I told you the third stage of initiation focuses on mental preparation and that's because it requires you to control your emotions and physical ability; which is what we have taught you in the previous two sections. To do well you'll need to keep a level head."
My only problem is Marcus. If I can face him, not be scared and fight back, I will do well and prove the development of all my skills.
"Next week you will go through your fear landscape as quickly as possible in front of a panel of Dauntless leaders. That is your final test, which determines your ranking for stage three. Stage three is weighted heaviest of all so it could change your rankings considerately. Don't take your current rankings for granted."
I am feeling pretty confident at the moment. So far I am top of the transfers, have the fastest overall time and basically no fears. What could go wrong?
"When you face the obstacles you have two ways which you could get past them. Either find a way to calm down to your normal heartbeat or find a way to face your fear which would force the simulation to move on. For example if you have a fear of drowning swimming deeper would combat it. I suggest that you take the next week to consider your fears and develop strategies to face them as that will help you reduce your time."
"That's not fair," Peter argues, "What if one person only has seven fears and someone else has twenty? That's not their fault."
In my opinion Peter doesn't have the right to talk about what is fair because of how he acted last night and my brother seems to agree with me.
"Do you really want to talk to me about what's fair?" he asks Peter, walking towards him, "I understand why you are worried because the events of last night really proved that you were a coward. So now we all know that you are afraid of a short, skinny girl from Abnegation."
Tobias smiles and Will, Christina, Tris and I laugh.
~~~
"You guys probably want to go to the chasm, now," Zeke says urgently to Uriah, Marlene, Lynn and I.
We are in the dining room, although it is quite late, just talking about our fears and ways to fight them. I have much less than the others, but Uriah is on par with my brother and is convinced I am randomly going to develop 12 more overnight so I quote, 'he can easily smash into victory'. I'm still not sure if that makes sense.
"Why?" Uriah asks.
"Just come," Zeke replies and walks in the direction of the chasm.
We look at each other confused, but chose to follow him as what else are we going to do?
When we get to the chasm there is a crowd of people and I wonder what they are looking at. I stand on my tip-toes and what I see roots me to the spot. Two men are hoisting a large body out the chasm. Someone's died. They committed suicide.
"Al," I mutter to myself in shock and I can feel the tears streaming down my face. He may have been cruel to Tris, but he didn't deserve this. No one does.
I feel arms wrap around me and I sense its Uriah. I turn into his hug and we just stand there in our embrace, mourning the loss and supporting each other.
~~~
It doesn't take long for the funeral to be prepared; Dauntless want to acknowledge the death as soon as it happens. Uriah has been by my side since it occurred and it's just comforting to have his presence there. I think I'm slightly drunk as I have been drinking out of Uriah's flask every time he offers. It dulls the pain.
We join up with Will, Christina and Tris since we can't find Marlene and Lynn. Plus we want to check Tris is okay as it seems like she think it's her fault since she said she would never forgive him, but it's not her fault. Al chose to try and attack her. He chose to jump to his death.
When we are near them Uriah offers his flask, but Tris shakes her head.
"Surprise, surprise," says Molly arriving at the worst moment. "Once a stiff, always a stiff."
We turn away to ignore her as we don't want to deal with her at a time like this, but she doesn't give up. "I read and interesting article today," Molly says to Tris, "Something about your dad and the real reason you left your old faction."
For a second I thought Tris was going to ignore her and be the bigger person, but she doesn't. Anger flicks across her face and she turns around a punches Molly in the jaw, hard. Molly never saw it coming.
Molly lunges at Tris and it seems like a fight is about to break out, but Will stops it. He grabs Molly's collar and drags her back, "Quit it. Both of you." Surprisingly they both back down and finally our attention reverts to Eric who is climbing onto a box next to the railings.
"Quiet down everyone!" Eric shouts.
The noise gradually dims down, only leaving some mutters here and there.
"Thank you. We are here tonight because Albert, an initiate, jumped into the chasm last night."
Now everyone is silent and everyone's attention is focused on Eric and what he's saying.
"We don't know why and it would be easy to mourn the loss of him tonight. But we didn't chose a life of ease when we chose Dauntless. And the truth is now Albert is exploring an unknown, uncertain place." Eric says looking around at the crowd, "He courageously leaped into the waters to get there, who else would have been daring enough to do that? There aren't many among us who are brave enough to venture into the darkness of the unknown. Albert wasn't yet one of our members, but he sure was the bravest."
Cheers emerge around us and I'm shocked by their ceremony. None of this is true, Eric didn't even like Al. I don't want him to be remembered by his faults, but I don't want him to be remembered by lies.
Sensing my unease Uriah wraps his arms around me tighter and whispers, "It's how we mourn people here."
"But none of these people know him and they are cheering his name like he's there hero."
"At least they remember him. This is probably the opposite from Abnegation, but you need to embrace it."
I sigh and lean back into him, "It's just hard to let everything go."
Another week down, I don't know how many left...
Just for your information when Uriah and Roza are having their 'moment' Tris and Tobias are having theirs, but it might not be mentioned my book so I will say it here.
Also I have had this great (sneaky) idea which will be coming up soon which I hope you like- or maybe not because of what it is. Anyway I slightly hinted at a point in this chapter, but you probably won't be able to work it out.
Continue to read, comment and vote. Thanks for reading !